China on Thursday praised the bilateral meetings held by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) with the U.S. and Japan, calling them important for the resolution of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the meetings were important to fully implement the statement issued on September 19, 2005, to resolve the issue.

Qin said at a regularly scheduled press conference that China hoped the concerned countries could properly handle existing issues as soon as possible and march towards the normalization of bilateral relations.

The fifth round of the Six-Party Talks to resolve the nuclear issue ended in Beijing on Feb. 13 with a joint agreement for all parties to establish separate working groups on the denuclearization of the peninsula, normalization of DPRK-U.S. relations, normalization of DPRK-Japan relations, economic and energy cooperation, and a northeast Asia peace and security mechanism.

The DPRK and the U.S. convened a working group meeting on normalizing ties in New York on March 5 and 6. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, heads from the U.S. and the DPRK delegations to the Six-Party Talks, were both upbeat after the meeting.

It has been reported that Kim will arrive in Beijing later on Thursday to meet Chinese foreign affairs officials.

Qin said China was closely coordinating and consulting with the other parties, but there were no concrete result so far on arrangements for the other three working groups (besides the two on normalizing ties). However, there would definitely be some result before the sixth round of the Six-Party Talks due to open on March 19.

Source: Xinhua